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Children's Nonfiction Flowers & Plants

Plant Attack!

The Fascinating Ways Flora Defends Itself

by (author) Erin Silver

illustrated by Julie McLaughlin

Publisher
Orca Book Publishers
Initial publish date
Mar 2025
Category
Flowers & Plants, Discoveries, Environmental Science & Ecosystems
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781459837973
    Publish Date
    Mar 2025
    List Price
    $21.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781459837997
    Publish Date
    Mar 2025
    List Price
    $27.99

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Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 6 to 8
  • Grade: 1 to 3
  • Reading age: 6 to 8

Description

Just like people and animals, plants need to defend themselves.

They can't scream or run away from danger, but many have developed surprisingly cool and courageous ways to keep themselves safe from pesky bugs, hungry animals and even large-clawed crabs. Plants can stab, poison, drown and even suffocate their predators. Discover the corpse flower, which smells like a combination of rotting wounds, garlic, cheese and sour sweat. Then there is the touch-me-not balsam that explodes, flinging anything that touches it through the air. Plant Attack! The Fascinating Ways Flora Defend Themselves explores 15 different plants and the unique, and sometimes bizarre, ways they defend themselves from predators, including us.

 

Praise for Erin Silver:

"Enthralling...Empowers readers to understand their own human coping mechanisms, while colorful, detailed images soaked in softly muted earth tones build a base of strong general knowledge. The challenge for readers young and old will be to see who says 'ew' first! A thoroughly engaging, fact-filled book with audacious and memorable animal responses to predators. A must-have for every library."—School Library Journal, starred review for Mighty Scared

About the authors

Erin Silver is an award-winning children’s author. Her books include Just Watch Me (Krystal Kite Award nominee), What Kids Did: Stories of Kindness and Invention in the Time of COVID-19 (Hackmatack Award nominee), Proud to Play: LGBTQ+ Athletes Who Made History, Rush Hour: Navigating Our Global Traffic Jam (Blueberry Award winner), Sitting Shiva (Vine Award finalist, TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award finalist) and Good Food, Bad Waste: Let’s Eat for the Planet (2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books finalist). Erin was chosen to tour during Canadian Children’s Book Week in 2023 and is a sought-after speaker at schools, libraries and conferences. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction and a postgraduate journalism degree. Erin lives in Toronto.

Erin Silver's profile page

Julie McLaughlin is an award-winning illustrator whose work includes commissions for editorial, advertising and publishing clients from around the world. Her previous books have been nominated for several awards, and she won the 2015 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction for Why We Live Where We Live. She is the illustrator of What Animals Want in the Orca Think series and Pride Puppy! Julie grew up on the Prairies and now resides on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

 

Julie McLaughlin's profile page

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